this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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Summary

Elon Musk suggested cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in a Fox News interview, citing debunked claims about fraud and linking benefits to illegal immigration.

He falsely claimed millions of deceased individuals remain in the Social Security system, a statement previously refuted by officials.

While Trump has promised not to cut entitlement programs, Musk’s remarks indicate they are under threat, potentially impacting millions of Americans.

His rhetoric echoes far-right conspiracy theories, raising concerns about his influence on policy discussions regarding social safety nets.

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[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

If you're 70, don't worry this will all be over soon....unless you're doing an 18 year old right now. I would find me a nice person who might be coughing some freedom up. You'll find then at the public transit and the urgent care unit at your local hospital. There are quicker ways. Thanks for voting trump!

[–] adm@lemm.ee 5 points 9 hours ago

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll just move your money into something else like the crypto reserve

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 23 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

"Admits".

Haven't demons like Paul Ryan had their entire political career motivated by ending Social Security? It's not like the Republicans' desire to kill old people is any secret...

[–] TimeTraveler@lemmy.world 14 points 15 hours ago

You work until you die

Either the work kills you (no OSHA) or You work until you die from old age

There will be no retirement for the poors

[–] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 33 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Seriously…. Why the fuck is this clown allowed to cut ANYTHING?

The moment he cuts a single service someone depends on, he should be sued into submission. How is this happening?

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Because the President and the Republican majority in the House and Senate are onboard with it, and that's the authority driving it (mostly the President, but the reason that Congress isn't objecting to or trying to block stuff is because they're okay with it). Musk may be the face of the cuts


he doesn't have to worry about re-election, unlike politicians


he has no authority of his own. His organization is just saying "this is what we should cut", and the cuts happen under the President's authority. Musk isn't independently going out and cutting things.

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 8 hours ago

Musk isn’t independently going out and cutting things.

It's weird seeing this complete and utter bullshit being unironically spewed still. It wasn't Trump that cut the air traffic controllers, or nuclear watchdogs, or infections disease investigators. It was Musk, and spreading this propaganda just helps protect Trump from allowing it.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmings.world 78 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

We should use the chopping block on him, and repurpose his wealth to fund government programs. Especially for repaying federal employees for this shitshow.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 24 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

A kawaii guillotine. I have truly seen it all now.

[–] braindamagebuddy@lemmy.world 15 points 15 hours ago

img

I've had this saved as a reaction image for a while now

[–] underfreyja@lemmy.world 10 points 17 hours ago

I'm gonna be honest, I kinda want my tattoo artist to make me a kawaii guillotine tattoo now

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[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 11 points 15 hours ago

Oh okay. So where's my fucking money???

[–] Godofdirt@lemmy.world 11 points 15 hours ago

He should be on the chopping block

[–] Tarvoz@lemmy.world 46 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

Where do I get a refund on my social security payments I've put in my entire adult life?

[–] andrewta@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

I know you’re joking but for those that don’t understand:

When you pay in your Social Security each paycheck. That money is immediately handed out to another person. When you go to collect Social Security in reality, you’re justliving on somebody else’s money. You never see your money again. It really is just social welfare.

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 143 points 1 day ago (6 children)

You know, Elon Musk is a person with a neck.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 64 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

You, and all your ancestors, offspring, and reincarnations, have just been permabanned from Reddit.

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[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

I sincerely hope these cuts do not happen, but if they do, I hope we see a massive "grey wave" of large scale protests from older folks who rely on these programs. They worked and paid into Social Security their whole lives and deserve that money.

[–] Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

I already told my Trump-voting mom that if there's anyone that deserves to lose it, it's her. She doesn't care. Trumpers are irrevocably anti-human even if they get hurt in the process. Fuck the future, fuck everyone but them, and fuck them too as long as everyone else is getting fucked harder.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 33 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

The thing is, the elders have all bought in to this idea that there's no money for social security and medicare not because it's been whittled away and underfunded and means tested to death for forty years, but rather there's just massive, massive fraud, and everybody's stealing from social security before it gets to them. So, they're probably all cheering this push to cut entitlements because they think that all these fraudsters will be kicked off, and surely they won't be kicked off, surely their social security benefits will actually be a good amount once all those mooches are kicked off. When it does happen to them, and it will, they won't realize that it was by design, they'll all be stunned that Trump and Musk made this "mistake" and swept them up in the cuts.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 13 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

And if we have elections again, they’ll thumb a ride from outside of their tent by the highway to catch a ride to the polling booths where they will vote for Trump’s third term? I’m thinking some of them will have to figure it out by then.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 16 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Imma be straight with you, dawg, my MAGA mom is still unironically, dead seriously convinced that Obama is the anti-Christ and he's going to come back and seize control of the government and launch a nuclear apocalypse literally any moment now.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 9 hours ago

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/11/white-house-shooter-and-obama-the-antichrist-were-other-presidents-called-the-antichrist.html

How Many Presidents Have Been Accused of Being the Antichrist?

Hint: It’s not just Obama.

Suspected White House shooter Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was obsessed with President Barack Obama, according to investigators, and reportedly thought Obama was the Antichrist. In September, heckler David Serrano called Obama “the Antichrist” at a fundraiser. Have other U.S. presidents been suspected of being the Antichrist?

Yes. Perhaps the first U.S. president suspected of being the Antichrist was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s extraordinary influence and desire to form a worldwide United Nations raised the suspicions of many conservative Christians. When President Roosevelt began to engage in diplomacy with the Soviet Union, prominent evangelist and politician Gerald Burton Winrod suggested that Roosevelt was at the very least under the influence of the Antichrist, and carrying out his plans. During John F. Kennedy’s candidacy for president, Protestant leaders compared electing Kennedy, a Catholic, to electing the Antichrist. In 1990 a man named Gregory Stuart Gordon invaded the house of former president Ronald Reagan, telling Secret Service agents “Ronald Reagan is the Antichrist. He must be killed and I must kill him.” While Gordon’s attorney claimed that Gordon was only trying to attract attention in hopes of gaining treatment for a drug problem, courts judged that his threat was serious and sentenced him to a two-year prison term.

[–] Jimius@lemmy.ml 84 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Reminder: you paid taxes in order to receive social security when you need it. If they negate on that deal, ask for your taxes back.

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 48 points 1 day ago

Money back plus interest. Decades and decades of interest.

[–] dx1@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Social Security's "trust fund" is an empty pit of debt obligations. Benefits to current recipients are paid with incoming payroll taxes. Any difference is made up with additional taxes or monetary inflation, by way of Treasury bonds. They "reinvest it in the economy" if there's ever a surplus, e.g., through military contractors. It finances the national debt.

Putting aside the quirks of that setup, the basic function is that the taxes you pay in now are not an investment in your own future, you're basically just paying for the retirement of older people now. The expectation is that someone down the road will then pay taxes to finance your retirement. Hence, how SS was able to start paying benefits almost immediately (3 years) after payroll taxes started being collected.

[–] Jimius@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

That's all technically correct. That's how it works in a lot countries, Europe included. But that's not how it feels, or what people think is going on. They're paying into a system that is going to benefit them. Even if what they receive is derived from future taxes on other people. They contributed to the system, therefore they are also entitled to benefit from it.

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[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 30 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

While Trump has promised not to cut entitlement programs

And we all know how much Trump's word is worth.

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[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 94 points 1 day ago (26 children)

Touch that shit, I fucken dare you.

[–] Carmakazi@lemmy.world 107 points 1 day ago (5 children)

If it gets out of hand Elmo will be left holding the bag and likely forced out. The Trump admin will continue on like nothing happened, they won't lose an ounce of support, and DOGE will just be a short footnote on our decline to fascism.

[–] limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's not optimism, it's the very real conclusion that Elon is the (miraculously unwitting) fall guy for all the bad shit they need done early on to facilitate everything else. They'll get to do the whole "we got rid of the bad eggs, we've tuned over a new leaf" thing that conservative politicians love to do when they kick out a fall guy.

This time next year he's going to be shouting on some fuckhead podcast about how he was used. I practically guarantee it.

Well that or Elon successfully manages to do what he thinks will happen and manages to take full control

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Counterpoint: There's a significant chance that Musk has dirt on Trump. He literally has access to Trump's old DM's from Twitter. There's a good chance that when he was forced to buy Twitter he needed to find something he could leverage out of the forced buy. Trump's DMs are easy pickings at that point, they were never encrypted. That's why they're called "Direct Messages" and not "Private Messages."

Further, there's rampant speculation that Musk helped him steal the election, but that's a lot more loose and may not be a real thing. Musk having access to Trump's past DMs on Twitter is basically a fact.

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[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 22 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

If he wants a wave of suicide bombers on mobility scooters, he's on the right track.

[–] starshipHighwayman69@lemmy.ml 14 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I'll believe it when I see it, they are to far into the Kool aid.

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[–] My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago

No way, a horrible person admits they probably might do something horrible after establishing a strong track record of doing horrible things?! I am SHOCKED. Who could have seen this horrible administration known for doing horrible things doing something horrible like this?

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 25 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

But but they said they would never do this. Stupid fools.

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[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 day ago
[–] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 19 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Musk's head is gonna be on the chopping block if he manages to make 20+ million Americans instantly homeless.

[–] in4aPenny@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

You'd think, Americans are more likely to turn on eachother in an attempt to feed themselves. Look how much billionaires have been screwing them for decades and they'd rather cry about culture war issues and get distracted by drones over NJ. Everything's getting worse but "haha Jon Stewart made funny voices and pulled funny faces he should be president!" There would be organized mass suicides before an #OccupyBillionaires movement, wouldn't be the first time either. Americans are literally hopeless.

[–] JigglySackles@lemmy.world 11 points 20 hours ago

Finally admits what we knew all along. I'm shocked...absolutely shocked...wow...if I could get anymore shocked I'd be like 5 steps down from a single eyebrow lift.

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